Convoy kills - do you confirm them?
 

I suppose this should be a poll, but I've never made one before. So, for convoy attacks do you:

(1) Confirm kill - see the torpedo strike from the scope or bridge?

(2) Confirm kill - see the target sink?

(3) Confirm kill - simulate surfacing later and examining the debris field?

(4) Disengage/evade - immediately after the last tube is empty?

I ask, because conventional wisdom in these games has been that #4 lead to the greatest chance of survival. However, from the few sub documentaries/books I have read, confirming kills was important and done.

Thanks.

PS: It would be a first for a sub game to actually require confirming sinkings before crediting them.

Single ship encounter, I'll hang around to make sure she went down. Convoy attack, I won't.

I'd agree with that for the most part.
Hanging around a shot up convoy is a sure fire way to assist the escorts into ending said carrer. I like in-game eye candy too, so a quick F12 or [.] glance & maybe a screen while the boat's in a dive for example.

The moment I fire my last torpedo, I go flank outta Dodge. wiggle-waggle and dive deep.
After the matata with escorts I will follow the convoy if I suspect straglers. If not, I either disengage for good or outrun the convoy for the next attack.

I never stay around to watch torps hit
Shoot and dive
Single ships are different but depends where they are and the year

Even a lone merchant calls in the damn RAF :nope:
And you never know what other ships are out there over the horizon

Kills in convoys are generally best confirmed by hydrophone, or so I've found, sinking ships make a strange crunchy noise, groaning metal and all that, same goes for stragglers, keep your ears open when egressing the convoy, If the escorts arent on to you you might confirm a straggler and calculate it's precense into your next attack.

E.G. I had a straggler once going half the speed of the convoy, when the convoy was well away I decided to deckgun it into sinking but it called in two of the convoy's escorts. Did sink the merchie but had to do the whole evasion thing all over again.
The upside was that when the escorts left they did so at the convoy's speed, say 7 knts. so after my end around the convoy was still short 2 escorts, apparently they decided to have tea or something before stepping on the gas and getting back into position

I hear you on that one wooly. :yep: :up:

Yeah, but it seems that most skippers ended up with inflated stats for ships that appeared as though they were going down, but in fact made it to port. So my guess is that the skipper's confirmation was little more than a cursory examination. "Man, that tanker looks like a blow torch. NO way they're surviving that."

I finally (after 2 years!) finished Part I in Blair's series, and as a guess, out of every patrol, at least one of the ships thought sunk in fact did not go down.

I start diving even before I fire. :oops:

i will observe all initial hits... sinking sounds and massive secondaries on the hydrophone in the general direction of a confirmed hit are enough for me. can sometimes hear the target strike the ocean floor in shallow enough water. 300M or less round about

I'm the same as BBW. If I'm attacking a convoy and some ships don't sink, I then have a record of my claimed tonnage versus my actual tonnage, as determined by OKM. It makes it nice when I can pretend that it actually happened that way.

Depends on the situation, but mostly staying at periscope depth untill detected.

If detected, but destroyers far away enough, and torpedos left to fire, then waiting to get them out before diving.

If detected with destroyers close by, then crash dive, with a course set to dive below a merchant if possible, then silent running in a general opposite direction of convoy course. Works 9 out of 10 times...

I usually chose 3) and simulated the examination..

Singles: I stay around to watch them sink. If it doesn't happen fast enough, I use the deck gun or another eel.

Convoy: shoot and run, then listen to the sounds of hits. You can also hear the target sink. After escaping the escorts I scan the area to sea if there are ships dead in the water.
Then I either follow the convoy to see if there are wounded ships falling behind (and starting a new ambush) or I'll leave the scene and continue patrol.